


Wasted Opportunities

by winterisntcomingyet



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, New York City, Strippers & Strip Clubs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-21
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2018-01-25 23:26:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1666343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterisntcomingyet/pseuds/winterisntcomingyet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katniss is struggling to make it by and provide for her little sister, who she'd do anything for, even work at a strip club. Her boyfriend, Gale, hates it, while she secretly enjoys it. Peeta Mellark sees Katniss for the first time in years at Finnick's bachelor party then by accident over and over again. Will sparks fly or will there just be a series of wasted opportunities like when they were still teens?<br/>Mostly Katniss/Peeta but slow build up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a longer fic, I think. Hopefully you enjoy. I'll try and update as much as possible.

 

Peeta Mellark sat with his brother, Rye, and his best friend, Finnick Odair, listening to them go on and on about how excited they were to go to Finnick’s bachelor party tonight. The plans were nothing special really, just bar hop for a few hours then go to a strip club near the edge of the city. Peeta had the stinking suspicion that that was the thing they were so excited about. Even at 26 years Rye still didn’t feel the need to settle down, so he was hoping to take one of the strippers home with him. Peeta on the other hand was in a serious relationship of two years with his childhood friend, Delly Cartwright, and Peeta knew that Delly did not like the idea of Peeta going to a strip club, she was just too sweet to mention anything. Which made the whole thing worse, when you’re with someone like Delly- a person who’s always so sweet and happy and always thinks the best of absolutely everyone- you want to give her the best and be the best, it’s what she deserves. So, the entire time he was planning the bachelor party he felt utterly terrible for upsetting such a genuinely great person.

After feeling guilty for so long about this bachelor party he was surprised to see how quickly that guilt flew out the window when he was slightly inebriated and walked into a club full of pumping music and naked girls. He was a guy after all, how would this not appeal to him? But, with that being said, he kept himself to a look but don’t touch rule all night, he was nothing if not faithful. After their slightly rowdy group calmed down they made their way to a table in the middle of the room- able to see easily but not be one of the dickheads that sits next to the stage but never tips- they wait for the girls to come out. Peeta was casually sipping on his beer when the first girl, ‘Kat’, came out on stage. When he saw the shorter girl with tan skin and black hair he choked on his beer.

~~~~

Katniss had just put her seven year old sister, Prim, down for bed, locked up their shitty one bedroom flat, and told their neighbor who watches Prim while she’s at work that she was leaving, when her phone rang. She saw her shitty phone light up with Gale’s name. “‘Ey, what’s up?” She asked before he could say anything. Just getting to the subway, on her way to the subway for a 45 minute commute into Manhattan.

“Just finished my shift. You comin’ over or do ya gotta work?” Gale says, he’s never been one with words. Like her, he’d rather get straight to the point, pleasantries weren’t really their thing.

“Nah, I gotta work, picked up an extra shift since Johanna got fired. Their still lookin’ for another girl and I’m the first on their list. They know I’m poor as fuck,” Gale’s silent for a while, he doesn’t like talking about her work. But, then again, how many guys are gonna be cool with their girls getting naked for money? Especially not guys as jealous as Gale. But he won't say anything, he knows how money’s been nearly non existent since her father died and mother started doing coke and bringing random guys into her house who stole their money and left her mother broken hearted until she killed herself leaving Katniss with a now seven year old to provide for. “I know, Gale, I promise I’ll be over tomorrow with Prim. Lo siento, dejarse no hablemos acerca de este, por favor.” _I’m sorry, let's not talk about this, please._ She finishes in Spanish since it’s the language she’s most comfortable in. Her father was from Cuba and lived as an illegal immigrant in New York since he was twenty and never learned English, her mother was American but learned Spanish and multiple other languages from her insanely overbearing parents who thought she needed to be culturally diverse. Little did they know that she would fall for a poor Hispanic who worked in the factories and live with him in the Bronx, leaving behind their growing businesses. They may have wanted their daughter to learn the language but they certainly didn’t want her ‘downgrading’. So, even their daughters children were still beneath them. Katniss has only seen her grandparents a handful of times, and it’s not something she wants to relive.

Gale sighed, “Bueno, por favor, estas a salvo. Me preocupo por ti, Catnip” _Okay, please be safe. I worry about you, Catnip_. Gale’s also of Spanish descent. But, both of his parents are from El Salvador. It’s easier for them to speak in Spanish to each other. Even though many other people know what their saying it feels more personal than anything else.

“Estoy siempre cuidadoso,” _I'm always careful,_ Katniss sighs and they talk on the phone for almost the entire subway ride, even though it’s going make her bill skyrocket and that old white lady keeps glaring at her. “Hasta luego nena.” _bye, baby,_ by the time she’s off the phone she sees that she’s only about two minutes from the club and hurries her stride to get there faster. She seriously cannot afford to be late. Especially when she landed a job at one of the nicer clubs.When she walks into the dressing room she grabs her outfit and hurries to put it on since she’s dancing first and sits down at her vanity to apply her makeup.

“Cutting it a little close, aren’t ya?” Madge says. She’s really the perfect example of rich white girl rebelling against her daddies wishes. Her father was elected governor when Katniss was a kid and even though he’s not anymore he’s still a highly prestigious man in New York. Katniss suspects that he doesn’t even know that some guy is about to stuff dollar bills in his angels g-string. Whatever.

“Yeah, it took forever to get Prim to go to sleep. My dumbfuck boyfriend let her watch Nightmare on Elm Street yesterday and she hasn’t been able to sleep since,” Katniss rubs her eyes frustratingly and sighs. She can’t find her fucking eye-shadow anywhere! “Dios mío, ¿Por Qué no puedo encontrar ninguna de mis mierda?” _My God, why can’t I find any of my shit?_ Katniss sighs again and turns to look at Madge whose staring at her with wide eyes like she always does whenever Katniss slips back into speaking in Spanish. Even after Madge working with Katniss for almost a year Katniss still suspects that Madge see’s her as a poor Mexican from the ghetto (even though she’s not even Mexican). Madge is sweet, she was just very sheltered and thinks that this is the answer to her controlling daddy issues. “Can I use some of her eye shadow? I have no idea where mine went and I’m up in like ten minutes.”

Madge merely nods and hands her the pallet. It’s better than the one she has anyway. It’s embarrassing to admit how much of her paycheck goes to buying makeup, and waxing, and getting her nails done, and whatever else she needs to do. It’s not like she does it for conceited reasons, but who's going to want to see her naked if she doesn’t look good? And it’s not like she doesn’t do everything in her power to provide for her sister. Working two shitty dead end jobs that you get more money for if you look good and you expect her not to put money into her appearance? What she doesn’t mention is that she actually enjoys stripping sometimes. She definitely can’t tell Gale, he already gets mad when she’s here, what would he do if he found out she actually likes it? And she doesn’t have friends except for the girls from the club who obviously know that she enjoys what she does. That doesn’t mean though that this was what she wanted to do or what she wants to do for the rest of her life.

By the time she’s done with her hair and makeup she’s ready to walk out onto the stage. This was always her favorite part; the second right before she goes on. It’s deafeningly silent. She can almost taste their anticipation. Then she walks out.

_~~~~_

__

_Years before story and a six year old Peeta_

Peeta didn’t really know much about older married couple that ran the pharmacy next to his parents bakery. Only that they were super nice and always gave him candy and that they didn’t have any kids, which is really sad since they’d make the best grandparents ever. However Peeta’s perspective on them changes when he’s playing on the counter near one of the cash registers in their pharmacy after they offered to watch him for the afternoon.

He doesn’t really pay attention to much, too caught up in his drawing, until he hears the prettiest voice he has ever heard in his entire life, better than anything he’s ever heard on the radio his dad keeps in the kitchen at the bakery. His head shoots up when he hears it get closer. And she’s the prettiest girl he’s ever seen too. Peeta bets she doesn’t even have cooties. How could she when she sings that good? You can’t, that’s how. The girls dark hair is in two messy braids with red barrettes in them, braids have never tempted him so much,- he has to physically stop himself from jumping down and tugging on one- and a red cotton dress that seemed to have a chocolate ice cream stain on it. Peeta preferred strawberry, but he wasn’t going to hold that against her.

She was perfect, and she was coming this way! He finally noticed the adult with her, a pretty lady who looked vaguely like Mrs. Evans, the pharmacy owner, but nothing like the young girl Peeta’s age. The little girl that was fiddling with her bracelet looks up at the adult and says something Peeta can’t understand, and what the woman say surprises him more though, “Not here, baby, you need to speak English,” What else would she speak? The woman’s obviously gone crazy. But the girl nods like she understands what the crazy lady meant and then she see’s Peeta.

The little girl tugs on the lady’s pant leg and points to Peeta before she rushes over and starts talking, “Hi! We really need to see Mrs. Evans, this is my mommy and we’re on important business. My name’s Katniss,” Katniss is a really weird name, but Peeta’s not about to tell this girl that, so he kept it to himself and just mumbled out his name, suddenly shy.

“Do you know where Mrs. Evans is Peeta?” Asks the crazy lady who might not be all that crazy.

Peeta nods, “I’m helping her today, she said that if anyone comes in that all I need to do is press the bell and she’ll hear,” So Peeta did just that, he reached over and rang the bell happily. He’d been dying to ring that bell since he walked in this morning.

As expected, Mrs. Evans comes out of the back room and calmly walks their way. But what is strange to Peeta is that she stops when she seems to get a good look at Katniss and her mother. Her face turns angry and she calls out for her husband, “You’ve got a lot of nerve showing up here again after all this time, especially with his kid,” Peeta’s never heard Mrs. Evans sound so cold, sure, sometimes she scolds a group of teenagers who she caught stealing but there is real ice in her voice. So much so that Peeta can feel it down his spine. He looks down and notices that Katniss has shrunk behind her mom in attempt to hide herself from Mrs. Evans’ gaze.

Peeta doesn’t really know why he did it, but in that moment he didn’t like the fact that Katniss was scared. Nuh uh, not one little bit. So, he leaned down and stretched out his short arms that were still embarrassingly chubby and grabbed Katniss’ arm. She looked up at him startled but seemed to understand after he tugged her arm up towards him. He helped her up unto the counter where he could look at her more closely. She wasn’t chubby, like he was, but there was definite chubby baby cheeks. She had wide gray eyes and a skinny nose with a smatter of freckles on her cheeks. She was tanner than Peeta, by a lot. She was perfect.

Peeta could hear the not so quiet conversation going on near him but he already started a conversation with Katniss and he wasn’t about to listen in to the dumb adults. “I like your bracelet,” Peeta says randomly, looking at the red snap bracelet she was playing with on her wrist.

By the end of the adults conversation that was growing louder and louder by the second Peeta had already found out that Katniss hated wearing dresses- her mother forced her into the one she’s wearing- her favorite color was green and she had to take the subway to get here- Peeta’s mom never let him go on the subway- and they were taking turns slapping their wrists with her bracelet. “I will not let you or your foreign trash into this store ever again! I don’t care if you lost your job, it’s not my problem anymore!” Mrs. Evans bellowed the last part so loudly and so angrily that Peeta herd Katniss whimper next to him as if afraid by the outburst. Peeta was used to it at home but not from the sweet grandmother figure he made Mrs. Evans out to be, so it was a given that his eyes were as wide as flying saucers.

Just as Mrs. Evans stopped talking her husband walked out. He was a taller man, slightly overweight, with greying blond hair and normally happy blue eyes. Now however his eyes looked almost as cold as his wifes. Taking in the situation he spotted Katniss and Peeta still on the counter and the angry women within earshot of them. “Don’t do this in front of the children,” he said to his wife, then turned to Katniss’ mom, “I think it’s time for you two to leave.”

**  
**Katniss mom hastily grabbed Katniss from the counter and placed her on her hip, looking like she was about to cry. Katniss seemed to pick up on this well enough not to squirm around in her mother’s grasp, Katniss waved at Peeta as she was leaving. Peeta waved back and didn’t realize until it was too late that she had left without her bracelet.


	2. Chapter Two

Peeta was beside himself. He remembered that girl, ‘Kat’, when she was Katniss. They were never close and she probably didn’t even remember the awkward seventeen year old boy, not with the vague memories he had of her. They had only spoken a handful of times, but he could not stop the impressive, strong willed girl from invading his thoughts from time to time.

It was always at the strangest times that she would pop into his consciousness. Normally he didn’t think of her at all, but a girl like that doesn’t just leave you. He would find himself randomly wondering what she was doing or how her life turned out. Peeta would only ponder the possibilities for a few moments before going back to kneading dough, or eating dinner, or even painting- which is normally was one of the few places where his mind was blank- and Katniss wouldn’t even come to mind for weeks.

He knew a few things about the mysterious beauty; one, her father and mother were both dead (Peeta vaguely remembers her mother but it’s impossible to remember what she looked like). Two, when she gets discouraged, her eyes turn as hard as steel and are uncrackable, until she thinks no one notices. Three, she had a baby somewhere between the time she came to her grandparents when she was twelve for help to when he seen her carrying a baby in a bundle of blankets when he was sixteen. Four, she hasn’t had enough food since she her father died. Five, she looked fucking _amazing_ on that stage.

Peeta supposes that this profession makes sense with someone in her position, the amount of money just the bachelor party brought in would probably be enough to pay the bills. He doesn’t know how much a kid costs but he knew those singles were put to good use. The kid would have to be in school by now, so even this job might not support her.

Peeta goes back to watching what she’s doing on stage. She’s a natural, made for the stage. The see through red underwear set complemented her skin perfectly and her huge silver glittery platform heels made her legs look amazing. The Dj was playing a song Peeta couldn’t place but knew he wouldn’t be able to get out of his head for the rest of his life. Katniss, or ‘Kat’, was slowly walking to the middle of the stage where a pole was located and Peeta suddenly wished they would’ve picked a spot closer to the stage.

_~~~_

She had a sultry look on her face and walked like she ruled the world, and for the time being, Katniss felt like she did. There was nothing like the first moments being on stage, or being the first girl out for that matter. You would think that with every eye in the club on you, you would feel nervous or have stage fright. Katniss didn’t experience that, she never had. Even being freshly 18 and this her only hope, as soon as she walked out she felt unstoppable. She was in her element.

As soon as young Katniss Everdeen turned 18 it was like a new reign of hope opened up. She had a lot more options to chose from. No credible club or bar would let a sixteen year old perform or work there. So after spending two years working odd jobs and doing anything in her power to provide for a baby she didn’t even get the pleasure of at least getting fucked for- even going as far as pickpocketing from wealthy businessmen- she figured the best sure fire way to earn money was to continue working at the dinner she had been since she was fifteen and put her years of dancing to use.

She’s sure he father didn’t expect her to spend the dance lessons he had scraped money together for to become a stripper but even if he was alive- or there was that unlikely heaven and he was looking down to her- he would be proud of her finding a way to provide for her little sister. Her sister, Prim, was the only person she knew she loved anymore. Even Gale sometimes felt like a friend she had sex with. She knew that was a horrible thing to say, Gale was loyal, and hardworking, and beautiful, and cared for her and Prim like they were already part of his family. But Gale was surly, didn’t support her career choice, and was not always the person Katniss felt she needed. But her and Gale had known eachother since she was twelve and he was fourteen. The same factory explosion that killed her father claimed his as well and they met at the banquet that was hosted in theirs and 10 other workers’ families honors.

_~~~_

__

_A few years back and a shellshocked Katniss_

‘He wasn’t even supposed to be on call’ was the only thing twelve year old Katniss Everdeen could manage to process at the moment. Well, that, and her mothers broken sobbs next to her. Katniss hadn’t eaten a single bite of food since the day her father was pronounced dead, she actually couldn’t. Everything she put in her mouth tasted like ash, not to mention her mother hadn’t left her bed since the news, and Katniss had no idea where they hid the money in case of intruders- you’d be stupid not to find a place to stash all your money. Katniss had no money and had no way of getting any.

Today was the memorial funeral the big name factory her father worked at organised for the families. Her father wasn’t an important man in the company- just an assembly line worker- and it’s more than probable that they didn’t know her fathers name until ten minutes before walking in. The company wasn’t good with taking care of their employees and since more than half of the workers were illegal immigrants there’s no one to complain for fear of being deported. So when her father got a call from one of the line managers yelling about needing more people down there for an overnight job he didn’t question it. He didn’t know that he would be blown to bits by a faulty gas line.

Katniss could barely hear the fat, balding businessman drone on about how sorry he was and about the promise of compensation that they knew they weren’t gonna get. If you don’t have papers you definitely don’t have life insurance. Katniss idly wondered if she was the only one catching the absolute bullshit spewing from his mouth. Mr. Snow has never cared about factory workers a day in his life. The only good thing about this day was that her mother had the energy to get out of bed and make herself look presentable.

“I’d like to send my sincerest apologies to the following the families of  the following; Hector Everdeen, Ernesto Hawthorne, Alejandro Lopez, Andrea Smith…” Mr. Snow keeps going but Katniss can’t bear to hear anymore, all she can think of is the other families. She can’t seem to stop the onslaught of images or the unwelcome questions popping into her head. _Were they friends with my father? Did they have a spouse in this very room trying to keep it together? Where they having a normal day like me or did their family members suspect something horrible and beg them not to show up at work? Why the hell was Mr. Snow wearing a white suit? Weren’t you supposed to wear black at these type of things?_

“Are you as baffled as I am about why he’s wearing white?” Katniss jumps as she’s brought back to reality, she didn’t even notice the boy next to her.

Katniss nods, “It looks like he’s trying to upstage the bride,” They both chuckle quietly. This isn’t a thing to joke about or the correct time to laugh about anything, but at this point it seems to be you laugh or cry, and this boy seems to agree that laughing was a better solution. She forces out her name to him quietly, now noticing how many people are looking at her disapprovingly.

“Nice to meet you Catnip, I’m Gale,”

**  
**“Katniss,”


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There really isn't an excuse as to why it took me so long to update other than there was no internet at my house and I write this using an online word pad thing and I really don't feel comfortable writing at someone else's house. But now I have internet at my house again and the updates will be coming a lot more frequently. I'm so sorry about the long wait!

       Everything was going fairly normal at work in Katniss’ opinion. After spending a few minutes on stage working the pole she decided to go down to the floor, you make more money with lap dances and person to person than just on the stage. And Prim’s got a field trip to the zoo coming up and Katniss doesn't have enough money stashed away to cover it and a lunch for her.

       She looks around for someone who will actually pay- there are a lot of assholes who promise to pay after a lap dance and then don’t- and not too drunk. Katniss spots a blonde haired man with broad shoulders, whose staring at her from the middle of the room. He looks to be in his middle 20’s and has a cocky look on his face. He’s sure to be an asshole but Katniss can handle a douchebag for some cash, she’s never had a problem with it before.

       As she starts walking over, making eyes contact with the slightly older man. When he notices that she’s looking at him he nudges his bronze haired friend in the side and nods over in my direction. Katniss gives them both a small smile and when she reaches them She speak in a low tone, her voice wasn't naturally raspy but when you've been smoking constantly with an older guy trying to ignore the fact that your own mother kicked you out for the night because she ‘doesn't like the way her boyfriends stare’ at you since you were 13 it gets there pretty quickly. “Hey boys, my name’s Kat,”

       The smile they both give her is a pretty good indication that they’re interested. The blonde one is the one who replies, “Hello, beautiful. My name’s Rye. This is my friend Finnick and he’s getting married in a few days. And you see, he’s needs a hot girl to hang out with tonight.” He says expectantly. Katniss sighs inwardly, she can’t count the number of times she’s asked a night to have sex, some people would think it’s flattering but, seriously, she’s at work and in a committed relationship.

       “I won’t be able to help you much with later, but right now, I’m your girl.” and she holds out her hand with a quirked eyebrow, waiting for him to drop a twenty dollar bill into her hand. She’s her about some clubs only charging ten, but this is a more high up there strip club. Everyone has their own prices and as long as you give the house one-hundred dollars at the end of the night you get to keep all your money, and you don’t have to pay taxes.

       ‘Finnick’ smirks one of those panty dropping smirks and hands her a twenty, “Right down to business I see,” All Katniss does is smile and nod in confirmation before straddling his waist. She reaches behind her and unhooks her bra after putting the money on the side of her red g-string. Finnick keeps his hands off of her, obviously been to a club before, or at least seen one of the “no touching” signs plastered to a few of the walls. While giving Finnick a lap dance she notices Rue casually walking over towards her group. She’s freshly eighteen and in an almost exact similar situation that Katniss was when she showed up. Katniss has taken her under wing and has been helping her get extra money. She’s become one of Katniss’ closest friends at the club.

       “Rue, come meet Rye, Finnick, and their friends!” Rue looks good in one of her bright yellow crop tops that shows the bottoms of her breasts, booty shorts that look like underwear and black platform heels. Rue smiles before walking all the way over. The yellow top a sharp contrast to her dark colored skin.

       The other man next to Finnick, who looks pretty nerdy but undeniably rich holds out his hand to Rue. When she walks over Katniss sees the man put a twenty in her back pocket before he smiles at her. Katniss turns back to Finnick, “Sorry ‘bout that, I like to think of her as my prodigy. Gotta teach her all my tricks and tips.” when she finishes what she’s saying she turns her back to Finnick so his chest and her back are flush before continuing to dance for him.

       “How long have you been dancing?” a curious voice from the other side of Rye asks. He’s obviously Rye’s brother, the blonde curly hair and broad shoulders, the only difference she can detect in the poor lighting would be that this one has a stronger jaw and bluer eyes. He makes poor Rye look like the ugly brother. He looks vaguely familiar to her but she shrugs it off, she meets new people everyday, probably just someone who was at the club before.

       “Since my eighteenth birthday,”

_~~~_

        Peeta couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Katniss walking towards his group. Of course it makes sense that Finnick would've caught her eye, he was the most attractive man in the group and right off the bat she was informed that he was getting married. He also doesn't understand why he was so surprised to see her take of her bra. Logically it would've happened sooner or later. Peeta was secretly glad it was sooner.

       When she started dancing on Finnick he tried to look away, Peeta didn't want to get shit from one of the guys later on that he was “in love with a stripper” no matter how good that song is he knew he’d hear about it for the rest of his life. He looked around the room casually while sipping his beer, this “look but don’t touch”- or rather “look but don’t interact” since the clubs rules- was going to be harder than he realized. He looked over towards Katniss when she called out to another girl about ten feet away. The girl was also really hot but she still looked too much like a teenager to make Peeta comfortable, but clearly Beetee didn't agree.

       Peeta didn't know why he asked Katniss when she started stripping, all he knew was that he wanted to know more about her and if she was to be grinding on Finnick when he found out more about her then so be it. Her reply didn't surprise Peeta, he figured she was the type of person to show up on her birthday to get a needed job. He didn't know what to say to her at this point. You can’t just ask someone if they were a teen mom without getting punched. So he just turned his attention back to the stage and stealing a few glances Katniss’ way.

       When she finished giving Finnick a lap dance she was on her way to another customer when Peeta's mouth worked faster than his brain, “Wait!” when she turned back around and smiled at him Peeta could tell she knew he wanted a lap dance too. Only after he pulled a twenty out of his wallet did he notice the group looking at him with a mix a surprise and happiness. They had all heard all week what he said about only looking and they must be excited to throw it in his face that he cracked after the first girl came near them.

       She put the twenty right on top of Finnick's so they were both laying on her hip and leaned down so her boobs were right in his face before she sat down. Her boobs looked slightly smaller than Delly’s and Peeta knew they would fit nicely in his hands, but he obviously contained himself enough not to grab one, he was positive it would get him kicked out of the club. He stared at her almost bare body and marveled at how soft her skin looked. The dance was far too short for his liking but would afterwards realize that his was longer than Finnicks.

       When she got up she smiled the devils smile and said, “Let me know you guys need anything else,” and she was gone with a last wink in their direction. Peeta saw her walk over towards a tall man near the front of the room. Peeta eventually lost track of her, he figured that she took a break and was back in the dressing rooms, or wherever she goes.

       Peeta only hoped that he could see her again outside of this place. Just once, and his interest and curiosity would sated. He hoped.

_~~~_

_13 year old Katniss_

       Her father had been dead for a year when Katniss was so desperate for money she went to the only living family besides her mother she had in this country. It was very clear what her grandparents thought of her and her father. They hadn’t been blunt about it when she was a child and her mother always told her how terrible they were. Her mother had always been a bitter person and could hold a grudge like no other so she was never shy when it came to telling Katniss about her grandparents.

       Katniss doesn't really remember what they looked like but she knew the store well enough. Her mother had pictures of herself and her parents from before they disowned her. Katniss remembers looking at the picture for hours trying to figure out how these seemingly perfect blonde barbies could hate each other so much.

       None of that mattered right now though. Katniss could handle them speaking rudely to her. All she needed was ten minutes of their time so she could tell them that her father had died and her mother had started to become addicted to meth.

       When Katniss showed up at the pharmacy she briefly wondered how wealthy her grandparents were. Their store was almost as well known as CVS and there were at least fifty in New York City and they were slowly branching out into other cities and states. Katniss pushed the thought away before she could become too bitter over the life she could have had. When she walked into the store there was a blonde boy sweeping the nearest aisle. “Hey, man! Do y’know where Janine Evans is? I heard they still work down here,”

       Katniss looked the boy up and down while he just stood there, “Well?” she really wanted to be polite but she didn't like the way he was looking at her. Like she was some new species.

       “Uh, yeah. Gimme a second,” The boy walked over to the doors near the back and returned a few moments later with Janine Evans strolling behind him.

       Janine stopped when she saw Katniss standing there, “Oh, this better be good, Girl,” Janine crossed her arms over her chest like a petulant child. It irritated Katniss more than it should but Katniss was raised with manner and dammit if she was going to use them now would be the time.

       “Janine, I need to talk to you about something private, I’m not sure if you want everyone to hear what I have to say.”

       “Just spit it out, the less I have to deal with you the better,”

       Katniss sighed, she didn't understand how this woman could be so catty. “Fine,” she snapped, “I just thought I should inform you that my father was in that factory explosion from six months ago and didn't survive, not that you care.” Katniss sighed and tried to adjust her tone so only Janine could hear it. “My moms gotten really bad lately and she’s become addicted to meth. Has been for half a year. She’s been spending all our money on drugs. Listen I just need to make it a short while longer and you’ll never have to see me. All I’m asking for here is fifty bucks and I can figure it out from there, please if you could help your only grandchild. I think you owe me that much.”

       Janine looked stunned for a second and then her face flashed with agony- probably over the fact that her perfect daughter had been reduced to nothing but a crack whore that was too poor for crack- and then she fought down all her emotions in a way that Katniss was familiar with. “Listen, I don’t care what happened to your father or my daughter, but, I’m a good Christian woman and that means I’ll help you,” Janine paused for a second and turned toward the blonde boy in another aisle who was pretending to sweep and listen to our conversation. “Peeta! Will you go get a twenty dollar bill out of the cash register for me?”

 

       Katniss was enraged when she heard this. Of course she was happy that she was getting any money at all but saying she was a ‘good christian woman’ but leaving her own grandkid to her own devices didn't sound exactly charitable. When Peeta came over with the money he gave her a small smile before handing her the bill. Katniss swung around and stomped out of the store with a last shameful ‘thank you’.

**  
**It wasn't until later when Katniss was only the subway on her way home did she realize the boy stuck three bills together and when she counted she discovered that the sweet boy had given her $220.


End file.
